The Partially Examined Life

I enjoyed the episode. Quantum mechanics is very bizarre and I get the feeling after studying it that although we have learned many interesting things, we are still at a very primitive stage in our understanding of the world. One of the things I find interesting is the meaning of observation. Observations occur after and during all sorts of processing by the brain, so it seems natural that observing some system involves all sorts of interaction with the information about it, which would affect the status of the information that is immediately available in the brain. There is no way of knowing how much of what we observe actually relates to things outside of our heads. It seems lot of the focus comes back to how the brain works to process information and other philosophical problems about the mind. Our whole observation of the experimental setup in the two slit experiment is taking place within our brains, including all the measurements. I wonder if the problem has something to do with the status of information transferring from one place to another or one observer to another or something to do with the way our brains process information. I think you mentioned something along those lines but dismissed it without giving any details about the views. One of the hopes of science is that it can lead to some better answers and progress on some of these issues, but it also seems to open new doors that further confound us. You presented a choice between the copenhagen interpretation which is difficult to make sense of, the many worlds interpretation which is equally crazy and leading to all sorts of absurdities, and some sort of hidden variable theory. You didn’t go into too much about why the hidden variable idea does not work. Anyway the discussion raised some interesting issues about the goals of scientific theories and what they can hope to tell us about the world, so I think Quantum mechanics leads to some interesting philosophy. I thought you guys did a good job of explaining many of the issues involved in a clear and concise manner. I thought the guest speaker also did very well. The discussion of Nagel also brought up the distinction between science and pseudoscience. I think it is good to have some level of skepticism in most things–including science. But I think a scientific philosophy is the best way at this time to proceed with trying to understand the world.

I agree. It might bring in doubt in the validity of scientific observations if we did something like that. There are also a few different versions of the many-worlds interpretation, including the branching version you guys talked about. I have heard of other ones that describe the universe like a sheet of paper in a book. Of course most people find the many-worlds pill a difficult one to swallow. When I first heard of it I thought it was probably a waste of time to even consider. However, it does have some strengths. These aren’t all of them but for one it avoids the need for observers to collapse the world into a particular state, which seems odd. That seems to put us too close to the center of the universe again. Many-worlds also seems to address the problem of this world existing and seeming to be perfectly suited for us. I believe in evolution, but in order for evolution to take place–-for the atoms and molecules to form–the universe has to be set up just right. From what I understand, physicists tell us here are many other ways this universe could have been. If one of the constants in physics were even a tiny fraction different, life could not exist in this universe. If the universe could so easily have been different, and there is only one universe, why did it happen to be one that was suited for life? I am sure you have heard of an argument like this from theists. It seems very improbable that we would get so lucky if there were only one shot at it. However, if every possible universe existed, or at least an extremely high number of universes existed, then this universe may not be as improbable. Then there would be lots of universes like this and we would not be so amazing after all. I am not saying I buy it, but there is something to be said for it. It is a good one to put away in your toolbox. It defeats the need for a creator.